"This place is a Junkyard!" Burnt One points out broken clock mechanisms, axles, and slag that could very well have come from Torch. "Maybe the gremlins have been stealing parts. Good thing they didn't get to Val's construct!"
Seems they are on their way up now though. We might expect some mischief eventually when we are back. Can any of you read tracks? perhaps we can see if some humans came through here.
On another note, those grey ones are a bit suspicious to me too. Just a bit too sneaky for my taste. Who tells us that this isn´t their stuff here?
At Ibuki's direction, Burnt One searches the trash heap for tracks and other signs of human passage.
"Where did they get all of this stuff?" Val asks looking around the junkyard. "You would think people would notice this going missing."
She takes some time looking around the room then leaves with her companions to tell the skulks that the gremlins had moved out.
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"Murdering, banditry, fair trade?" Derlin posit's all of the options, raising an eyebrow to at his last suggestion.
"Perhaps these creaures once had open trade with the grey one's and a falling out happened. Now we've been tasked with ridding the Skulks of their old allies..." Derlin turns a distinct shade of red as his blood boils, thinking perhaps he and his new friends were being moved like pawns by these underdwellers.
" People do this all the time, it is not very uncommon and our original mission did not involve murder as of yet. " pulling two potions out of differing colors from his searching ad then a pouch with some jingle.
" Find anything useful, then lets go we can Identify these on the way through this metal wall. " Revealing the loot before heading back towards the Skulks.
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"Ah my friend you mistake me, I did not mean to suggest that we were bandits or murderers, no, but these gremlins are. I can imagine that this is where this hoard is from. We will deal with them when we return to the surface if need be." he corrects himself.
"Mother Serenrae would be is pleased by what has been accomplished with words instead of bared steel here today my elven friend - twitch not, you've more than earned the respect of Derlin Froak." Derlin nods, a gesture. Simple, but important,
Auehda picks up a strange looking red gun. It looks squarish with a grip, handle and trigger, and a opening in the front. Near the back end is a coin-sized slot.
The Burnt One finds no tracks in this room except for tiny footprints, likely left by the gremlins.
You return to the skulk cave. Sef stands to greet you, her short sword in her hands as she taps the rocky ground. Luepel is beside her, watching you with equally cold eyes. You do not see the other skulks, though every so often you do catch a flicker of movement out of the corners of your eyes.
"You have returned too quickly," Sef calls out. "Did you flee from them like cowards? Her eyes settle on Yvell. Again, her voice and tone does not sound like she is trying to intimidate you, but rather her words are a statement of fact.
Sef pauses for a moment. Then with a flick of her wrist, she throws a pouch down beside Derlin. It clinks as it meets the ground.
There are 49 silverdisks and 5 cards made of a flexible, smooth material with a brown stripe and Androffan writing on the side.
"You may travel through our cave unmolested. But do not harm our people or we will retaliate." Sef sheathes her short sword at her side and crosses her arms.
We were able to convince the gremlins to leave you alone and move on. I believe they are now pestering the uper city, where we will likely have to deal with them later. That´s good enough for you?
You see Sef's lips curl upward for a moment before she regains her composure.
"Yes, what they do to others is none of our concern. As long as they leave us alone, they could destroy that town above, for all I care."
Luepel laughs softly beside her.
Does the chance of a destroyed Torch please them?
Yvell nods and looks inside the bag and nods to Derlin. He looks to the rest and smirks " Well if we have issues with the creatures above we have a reason to kill them. Let us go and find Khonnir, I think these cards might have something to do with that. They seem to be keys.. for a.. 'Starship Divinty' ? "
The metal wall to the East seems to beckon you. Especially attractive is the circular door five feet above the ground.
Burnt One shows the others the red gun, stuffing it in their pack if it goes unclaimed.
"Will it light the fire, to find Khonnir Baine?" Burnt One asks, still trying to wedge a smashed timepiece into their backpack. "Maybe we should find him anyways. To keep from what happened to thug and halflings and Parda."
"I wonder if he went further in to this 'Starship' thing. Does anyone know what that is?" Val asks the group. looking at the odd cards.
Yvell takes he gun Auehda flung around and inspected it
" It seems too small to do so Auehda. As for you Valtyra, I think you may be right as we have seen no other sign of Khonnir Baine otherwise, besides the words of the Skulks. If I were to gather, a 'Starship' is a ship-vessel and these 'keycards' are keys. Maybe the Skulks gave him keys before or he found some? Lets try and see if we can go any further "
Securing the pouch, gun and other materials in his backpack Yvell takes his armor off and then begins climbing. He then takes one of the cards and tries to find a slot.
Bran slings his shield onto his back. "Might as well see if we can find some other clues as to what happened to Khonnir. It wouldn't do to find out we just barely missed him by stopping now."
Once the other two had climbed up Yvell let out 20ft of rope for Derlin and Bran to Hold while he continued inspecting the door. " Here, you two hold tight to this rope so that the weaker ones can get up without taking their armor off or risk falling. I'll put mine back on and see if I can use this key to get the door open.. or maybe we need a different tactic.."
Auehda makes it about five feet up with surprising ease, but gets too confident and slips, falling back down.
After several more false starts, they claw their way to the top.
Yvell finds no slot for a keycard. Instead, he tries pulling the circular door and it slides open with little difficulty.
Inside you see...
The walls, floor and ceiling of this slightly curved hallway are made of smooth dark gray metal. Panels of lighter material run along the ceiling eight feet above. To the north and south the tunnel is blocked by walls of metal junk and rubble, while an open doorway yawns to the east.
From the darkness of the Eastern room, a small red light blinks every few seconds.
At first Yvell simply say the architecture of the area, no real sign of life until the blinking red light. Once Derlin had placed his sword closer, his elven sight provides more than enough to recognize the drone. " Another one of those creatures from before, The one that attacked Val. I doesn't seem to be moving, but I'm not going in unprepared. Be ready to knock it back down if it seems hostile Derlin. " Drawing his blade he slowly steps closer.
Despite how close you get to the metal creature, it doesn't move. The red light on its face continues to blink. Moving closer you can see that it is in good repair, if a little rusty, and small lines of electricity run along circuits, wires and metal of its body.
" No it is definitely on, that light is blinking, not off. It is most likely is broken or malfunctioning like some Golem. I'm not sure it wont go berserk upon us on the way out. Let me try something. "
Yvell moved up to the construct and in a weird language spoke.
A robotic voice escapes from the center of the drone. It does not move its body, arms or legs, but its eye remains focused on Yvell.
" It says its under.. Repair, and if we leave the materials around here alone we should be safe. It called this place the 'Kasatha Habitat' "
Yvell smirks at that and looks to the group continuing to speak.
Yvell seems to hold up the 'keycards' from earlier to the construct
The drone speaks in a robotic voice filled with monotone and static. He motions with one of his four arms to the doorway behind him.
Val quickly climbs up the robe after everyone.
Watching Yvell talk to another robot. "Another one of those? Great. Has it seen anyone else?" Val asks softly
Ibuki asked Auehda if he could take a look at the "gun", trying to determine it´s properties.
He follows along, leavnig Yvell the lead and listening carefully to the Androffan dialogue.
You have not heard or read about any place called Kasatha, but you conjecture that it is another place outside Golarion. It probably is not any of the planes surrounding Golarion, but you also think it could refer to another plane by another name. Until you see this habitat, there is no way for you to be sure.
Yvell nods to the construct and looks to the party, " It said there have been no 'citizens' through here recently.. but I dont think that is the case considering it needed to be repaired. These cards are indeed keys but only to brown doors. We have to go through this door and that will lead our group to where we need to go. It warned us that there were Inhabitants inside, but something tells me they may not be as kind considering how long this has been down here. Prepare for the worse, hope for the best. " Yvell placed the majority of the cards back, then going through the door with blade reequipped.
Still smiling at themselves after their display on the rope, Burnt One follows Yvell inward. They are wary of the healing monster, but after defeating the other one so easily before they doubt it could hurt them or their friends. Maybe Val would like that one instead?
Val follows Yvell, "Thats so cool that you can talk robot. It sounds funny though. What if the inhabitants are just things that found a way in? Not the robot people." she looks in to nothing then adds. "I hope they're friendly." Her tone suggests she doesnt think they are.
Mh, this seems t be some sort of weapon. Guess it projects a short fire beam that one could use like a short sword, so stab someone or something. Perhaps it was a tool. It uses it´s energy though and will run out of it eventually. Can´t say how long it will work.
We can rest here, seems like a good idea.
Yvell noticeably twitches when Val seems to compliment him assuming his general expression quickly. He searches his mind on how to respond and settles on the words, " It is not all that fascinating, simply a language I was interested in because the ruins here were so vastly different than most in the Inner Sea Region. And just like this.. gun I've always seemed to make them work, at least when they DID work. The construct did say Kasantha HABITAT.. often Habitat is an environment of the former.. Kasantha might be a creature or animal. Regardless if we make it through I might be able to teach you a phrase or two.. I-If your interested. Stay sharp however, we might have guests. "
Looking to Ibuki with a nod " With that construct here I'm too wary it may attack on its definition of Disturb, if however the quarters the construct speaks of are in tact we can rest there. Once we are sure it is safe. "
"Maybe Kasatha bug friends?" Burnt One looks excited.
"We should probably proceed with the idea that anything beyond this point is either dangerous or extremely dangerous. Khonnir wouldn't just be stuck in here if there wasn't something preventing him from coming back." Bran says, readying his shield as the group moved forward.